Tag Archives: Environment

Editor’s note: Once again, David Suzuki has published a blog post that, without a doubt, hits a very strong nail in the hip of most of our culture today. It is incredibly important to not justify our actions saying it is at least better then yesterday, but still much worse then it once was. This article comes at a time when it seems there’s an influx of scientists and commentators calling for a much larger movement then just monitoring our rate of pollution – we’re calling for a complete reversal to a world where we respect mother earth so much that every single action we take, from buying groceries to choosing to walk, is taken with sweet mother earth’s best interest in mind, with the intention of nurturing her, rather then reaping what she provides.

The coming year looks bright with the promise of change after a difficult decade for environmentalists and our issues. But even with a new government that quickly moved to gender equity in cabinet, expanded the Ministry of the Environment to include climate change, and offered a bravura performance at the climate talks in Paris, can Canada’s environmentalists close up shop and stop worrying?

Of course not. The nature of politics includes constant trade-offs, compromises and disagreements. Even with a government sympathetic to environmental issues, we won’t act deeply and quickly enough or prevent new problems because we haven’t addressed the root of our environmental devastation. The ultimate cause isn’t economic, technological, scientific or even social. It’s psychological. We see and interact with the world through perceptual lenses, shaped from the moment of conception. Our notions of gender, ethnicity, religion, socio-economic status and the environment we grow up in all limit and create our priorities.

If we were to examine the anatomy of human brains, the circuitry and chemistry of neurons or the structure of our sense organs, nothing would permit us to distinguish gender, ethnicity or religion because we all belong to a single species. But if you were to ask a man and a woman about love, sex or family, answers could be quite disparate. A Jew and Muslim living in Israel might respond differently to questions about Gaza, the West Bank or Jerusalem. A Catholic and Protestant living in Northern Ireland might hold radically different outlooks about their country’s history.

We learn how to see the world. That, in turn, determines our priorities and actions. The world has been overwhelmed by the belief that our species stands at the pinnacle of evolution, endowed with impressive intelligence and able to exploit our surroundings as we see fit. We feel fundamentally disconnected from nature and therefore not responsible for the ecological consequences of our actions. Even at the 2015 Paris climate conference, the sense of urgency about climate change was dampened by the perceived equal need to protect jobs and to consider the economic costs of aiding vulnerable nations and even ways to continue exploiting fossil fuels, the very agents of the crisis.

We can’t just look at the world as a source of resources to exploit with little or no regard for the consequences. When many indigenous people refer to the planet as “Mother Earth”, they are not speaking romantically, poetically or metaphorically. They mean it literally. We are of the Earth, every cell in our bodies formed by molecules derived from plants and animals, inflated by water, energized by sunlight captured through photosynthesis and ignited by atmospheric oxygen.

Years ago, I visited a village perched on the side of an Andean mountain in Peru. People there are taught from childhood that the mountain is an apu, a god, and that as long as that apu casts its shadow on the village, it will determine the destiny of its inhabitants. Compare the way those people will treat that mountain with the way someone in Trail, B.C., will after being told for years the surrounding mountains are rich in gold and silver.

Is a forest a sacred grove or merely lumber and pulp? Are rivers the veins of the land or sources of power and irrigation? Is soil a community of organisms or simply dirt? Is another species our biological relative or a resource? Is our house a home or just real estate?

Once we learn that our very being, essence, health and happiness depend on Mother Earth, we have no choice but to radically shift the way we treat her. When we spew our toxic wastes and pesticides into the air, water and soil, we poison our mother and ourselves. When we frack our wells, we contaminate the air and water on which we depend. When we clear-cut forests, dump mine tailings into rivers and lakes and convert wilderness into farms or suburbs, we undermine the ability of the biosphere to provide the necessities of life.

Is this how we treat our source of survival? Until all of society understands this and then acts on that understanding, we will not be able to act fully to protect a future for ourselves.

I’ve recently been fed an article from the Vancouver Sun discussing Canada’s decision to alter some of the rules for its Environmental Assessment Act, becoming official on July 6, 2012. I won’t regurgitate what has already been spilled there, but I will offer some insight into what our government’s policies are.

Reading something like this Vancouver Sun article makes it nearly impossible to let it slide without saying something. We Canadians are passive about a lot of things, but our environment we should not be passive about. We, the entire population of the world, should take absolute measures to promote planet earth’s safe growth, health, and happiness.Continue Reading →

Take photographs, sure, but lets do it in such a way that it creates swirling dreams that dance around your minds eye and whispers little secrets into the overwhelming expanse of that which invites drop jaw and stare. NOW we have creation. Now we have tapped into what it is to create and to inspire.

On Wednesday, March 14th 2012 GLOBE 2012 Vancouver had an event hosted by Encana Natural Gas: a panel discussion on North America’s Energy Mix.

This event was very interesting in that it was primarily filled with students with hopes that questions would be raised, and ideas discussed with the impressive mix representing the panel.Hopefully somebody was taking notes.

As you can see from the picture above, Simple Shoes does not just make simple shoes, they make shoes that make the wearers feel happy and conscious about the choice that they have made with their pair of kicks.

I think this quote from their website aptly sums up their existence: “Finding materials and processes that make our products sustainable is a method we call Green Toe. It isn’t a magic formula, or a cure. It is a compass that, we hope, points to a bright green future.”

So without further adieu, I will showcase my picks that I’ll be trying to get my hands on.

First up is the Men’s Carport Elastic – Wool and Suede. These things are a delicious style of class mixed with aging University Professor with a color that swells with vintage. They go for $60USD.

The other shoe that I really like is the Men’s Tuba – Hemp & Eco-Certified Leather. These shoes define very well the type of shoe that I want as a more casual shoe. Since I do a lot of skateboarding in the summer, the Carport Elastic wouldn’t really do well for that, so I feel that a more casual shoe would do the trick. The Hemp Tuba’s go for $70USD.

Of course, this Tuba comes in different styles, and I’m trying to decide which style I like better, the Hemp or the Suede shoe. The Suede is slightly cheaper at $65, and I think is a slightly bit more ‘hipster-ish’ with its brown colors…But I think with the Carport Elastic I’d already be jumping into the category of the hipster…

These shoes look great and are very environmentally consciously made. With my recent new passion to reduce the waste in the world, it would only seem like fitting choices for shoes.. What do you think of them? Do you like the suede better than the hemp?

For the final bout, in anticipation of the sweet beaches I’ll be hitting, I think it would only be fitting to get a pair of sandals… the choice? Men’s Flippee – Recycled PET. They go for $30USD, and I think I’d feel like Jack Johnson walking around in them! I like the coffee liqueur stripe personally, which ones do you like?

I’m listening to Two Sisters, by Tom Waits. Some of his stuff just rocks me to my soul, but this one in particular makes me think of the old west when I was a young lad (no, really I was never involved), but it makes me remember a time when men wore dress pants every day, top hats were in fashion, and so were mustaches.

But most of all, this time makes me think of the spring time. How there is always a hope beyond all recognition that things are going to start looking better, but still one knows that tomorrow will come and drag on just as the last have come. Thats ok though, because we did, and do have cherry blossoms to keep our spring time hopeful.

They just look so beautiful all over the place, sticking out against the cold grain of the leaf-less brothers and sisters out there.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how cities and citizens decide that its in their best interest to chop down trees everywhere. This, without a doubt, makes me feel sad for what we have lost in our expansion as a society. Today I went for a hike today, in support of WildNed through the woods, which just brings back so much feeling of health and wealth that is beyond any currency that exists. The fact that we chop down all our trees to put up concrete is understatedly sad.

A house just around the corner from where I live, was for sale and gated up for the longest while, but finally did sell. So, what does the new owner do as a first priority? He chops down the row of trees that spanned the entire length of the lot side to side, must have been about 20ft tall those trees, most about 2ft apart.

Keep our trees, keep our nature, keep the earth so that tomorrow I can go out for a walk in it and see flowers blooming and children playing in the fields. Please join my fight in stopping people from cutting down old trees on their properties just because the insurance company says its a risk, and it’ll save you $20 a month on insurance.